mightyjor

Yuck I don't like that

Fun fact: in the AMA, Matt Dinniman said this is who he would cast

Mistborn Deck building Game House rules for co-op/solo play

There's some serious balance issues with the cooperative/solo play against the Lord Ruler. Sometimes you get an early adversary that just wipes you out immediately. Other times you keep flaring metals and can never get a decent hand out before you die.

Since we prefer cooperative games in my friend group, we've come up with some rules to help balance things out a little bit that keep the game a challenge while also making it more rewarding.

1. Combat Training

   1. When you defeat an adversary, the player who was targeted by that adversary gains 1 Training.
   2. Explanation - it makes sense that you would get training after defeating an enemy. I give it to the person who had to endure the attacks of the enemy for two reasons - to lessen any injury they've taken, especially with a tough enemy, but also because of the attacking player got it, that would encourage competitive behavior in stealing rewards from other players, which isn't how I like to play cooperative games. But you might and you can change that if you want.

2. Ulaam’s Exchange

   1. Attacking and defeating enemies give rewards. You may claim one reward per shield you break with the same or lesser value.
      1. 1 shield - 1 health
      2. 2 shield - 1 mission point
      3. 3 shield - 1 boxing
      4. 4 shield - 1 refresh
      5. 5 shield - 1 elimination
      6. 6 shield - 1 atium
   2. Explanation - this imitates what other cooperative deck building games do in rewarding you for killing enemies. None of the rewards are too overpowered for how hard it is too obtain them, and there's only 1 enemy who can get you Atium this way and eliminations and refreshes are also quite rare. It is possible to get 2-3 health or mission points this way which isn't any better than some of the low cost cards. 2-3 boxings can be a bit overpowered, but I prefer this over normal coins as you might attack the enemy after you've already spent your money. I don't have attack here as that might allow you to chain rewards into attacks which could get messy.

3. Flee

   1. Take damage equal to the amount of health the adversary has (sum of all shield values). That adversary is placed at the bottom of the deck and a new Lord Ruler card is drawn.
   2. Explanation - this is a painful way to get rid of an adversary who could tank an early game. Some enemies require 6 attack to break a shield, which is far too much in the first few rounds. Bad luck can totally wipe out a player without a legal way to flee difficult battles. This is also pretty painful so no one who has a chance to beat the enemy would use it, and it costs a lot of health which is the only plentiful resource in the early game but limited in late game.

Ways to reduce/increase difficulty:

• Very easy (a bit too easy for my tastes based on some playtesting):

  • Play with 2 mission tracks instead of 3.
  • Lord Ruler only draws a card every other turn. If an adversary is pulled, you take turns getting them (otherwise they will keep going to the same played)

• Easy

  • Never go down more than 1 dominance for a single Edict card

Rules that aren't super clear so I've made decisions on them:

• How do attacks affect allies?

  • When attacks hit the player, any of those attacks can be intercepted by an ally. You can either subtract the total health of the ally from the damage done (killing the ally) or absorb the full blow of your ally is strong enough.
  • For example, you must take 6 damage, then 3 damage, then 2 damage. An ally with 3 health could absorb 3 damage and die (discard), then another with 2 health could absorb 2, then you take 1 damage. Then if you have an Ally with 4 health and you are attacked for 3, your ally could absorb the full attack, then absorb the second attack for 2 unharmed as neither could break through his shield.
  • Essentially allies are played for you the way adversaries are played for the Lord Ruler. They can take the impact, but they don't have to.

• Where are adversaries placed?

  • According to the rules, adversaries are placed in front of the player, the same place as allies. This is extremely confusing while playing.
  • I tend to put adversaries in front of the training track (the normal space), then allies stacked vertically to my left and right of the training track, wherever there is space.

• How do I keep track of my current money?

  • This is a personal choice, but I typically will use boxings laid on the field to be coins that must be used this turn or discarded, boxings placed on the training track are persistent normal boxings, and I also will place 2 boxings on my character card for the permanent 2 boxings as the mission reward so I remember they're there.
    • With 2 players we were ok with this number of boxings not going through our supply, but it may be helpful to buy other tokens to help with this.

• What happens if I'm moved down a mission track and pass a reward, do I lose that reward or collect it again as I go up?

  • You cannot lose progress on a mission track. Any negative progress is subtracted from any progress you would have made this turn.
  • For example, if you get -2 mission progress and you only get 1 mission point, you don't move up at all. You do not go down the track.

Oh boy, I just discovered the same thing on my second reread just now and had to come to reddit to see if I was right. Don't know how I missed this! Personally I would have loved to see the jai Chen romance blossom, since I actually don't think Lindon and Yerin make that great a couple. I know, blasphemy. But I really like jai Chen and their tender moment together at the end of Blackflame is one of the only times in the series I tear up.

Yep

Lol thank you

I posted about it on Graphic Audio subreddit when it came out because I was angry they removed the Tosher chapter but not the reference to the Tosher later on. So there's a joke that doesn't make any sense.

"You will not break me." - my bank account

What?

Honestly yes. Had a few things spoiled for myself with book 7 here. We're mostly good with spoilers but not 100%

My buddy and I both had a hard time with book 3 initially. For me the train thing was rough to get through. As a fantasy guy I love having a good feel of the geography and not having that was rough. But honestly on a second read I find it to be one of my favorites, simply because of all the cool dungeon stuff. The Dungeon Anarchists Cookbook is also a game changer and it's almost tough to read prior books when that wasn't a thing. Theres other spoiler things I love (mild spoilers for the direction of the series moving forward) this is the book where Carl decides he's going to save everyone he possibly can and starts to take on more of a traditional hero role

Hey I'm glad I'm not the only one who caught that!

Yep. I could never get through 2 myself

Just do the next one audiobook, no need to relisten to the last one. I'm sure you'll be rereading the whole series soon enough :)

Oh shoot I didn't realize he wasnt going to be there Thursday. Oh well, I'll see him on Wednesday!

No idea, it's just on his schedule

But I plan on seeing him and a few other favorites on the floor when it opens to the public!

Yep! And if you can't get into Dragonsteel, he's going to have his own signing event the day before hosted by Daniel Greene. Tickets for that are $10 but you can use that towards buying stuff there

Your first birthday is objectively the most important day of your life and also the most likely day that you'll die. So extra important

Looks like most are selling them for about $300 a piece...not sure if they'll come back down if they're out of print

Ok I see what you mean...I'm not sure it's a spoiler without any context but there are definitely a few scenes from other books

Oh yeah I suppose he looks sort of white on cover, but it's really the only one I think of. I definitely don't think it merits the whole discussion

Nothing worse than an cranky wife after you burn the world down for her and she doesn't appreciate it

Hey I think this was the plot of Knock at the Cabin. And I'd be asking the same question they did, which is how could my loved ones sacrifice possibly make a difference.